|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
|
The Best of Both Worlds
Having lived in Australia for twenty years I have had the opportunity to
experience two very different cultures which has significantly affected my life.
On one hand I have been exposed to the rich and colorful Bangladeshi culture
through both my Bangladeshi parents and on the other I have also been heavily
influenced by the very diverse Australian culture. The
greatest advantage I have had in life is the opportunity to have been brought up
in a country which is heavily influenced by the idea of “mateship” and accepting
cultural differences. However this is not to say that these attributes are not
shared by Bangladeshi culture, but I have found it interesting that the
influence of mateship seems to be stronger in my generation than my parents. For
example, having lived in Australia all my life I have been able to mix with
several different cultures and developed strong relationships with many people
who have all been brought up under different circumstances. However when I
observe my parent’s generation I have found that their mateship solely lies
within the Bengali community and very rarely extends outside of that circle.
Generally there is a common consensus amongst many sub continental people that
Australia doesn’t have a culture however I feel that Australian culture is far
deeper than the odd “VB Barbie” get together. I have found that the core of
Australian culture is generally based around a “laid back” attitude, that is, to
take every day as it comes and not stress too much about the serious side of
life. Additional to this is the idea to look beyond cultural differences of each
individual and develop a relationship which is based around mateship. Now I am
not saying that Bengali culture doesn’t have any of these attributes but they
are aspects which I feel are not strongly connected with Bangladeshi culture.
Rather our culture is more renown for its food, clothes, every weekend dinner
parties and the constant nagging from our parents to study hard to become
doctors, lawyers or someone who can effectively evade taxes. The advantage that I have had living in this country is that I have been able to fuse together the two cultures and reap its benefits. On one hand I have been influenced by the cultural roots of my parents such as our love for ethnic food, traditional dances and overly large weddings and on the other hand I’ve had the influence of Australian culture which sometimes teaches me to slow down my life so that I can enjoy its small pleasures such as the late night party’s and the occasional Friday chill out sessions with the “boys”. Furthermore my parent’s cultural influence has also taught me the most valuable thing in life, family and combined with Australia’s value of mateship it ensures that life will neither be boring or lonely. Imdad Khan, Melbourne _ |
|
_
| ||||||||||||||||||
...
